The 2020 Mercedes GLS Is an Ultra-Luxury Family SUV

This is the new

2020

Mercedes-Benz GLS and it's a big deal, I say this because the full-size

luxury

SUV segment is very hot right now with the BMW X7, the new Lincoln Navigator and the updated Range Rover all Launched in the last year and a half, the new GLS is Mercedes' answer to all those vehicles and today I'm going to review it. I borrowed this gls from fletcher jones motor cars which is a

mercedes

-benz dealership here in newport beach in southern california that sells more

mercedes

than any other dealership in the country now the new gls just arrived at fletcher jones and It will surely be a great success.

I say this because, as I mentioned before, the full-size

luxury

SUV segment is gaining popularity and the new GLS looks ready to compete. This is the gls 450 and the starting price is around seventy six thousand dollars which is about five thousand dollars more than the base price of the previous model but you also get a lot more stuff which I will show you. At one point, the GLS 450 uses a turbocharged six-cylinder that makes 360 horsepower and 370 pound-feet of torque and all-wheel drive is standard. If you want more power, Mercedes-Benz offers it, the GLS 450 will soon follow. for the gls 580 with a twin turbo v8 making 480 horsepower and 515 lb-ft of torque and i have no doubt that an amg gls 63 will be on the way soon and for racing the gls faces some tough The BMW X7 and the new Lincoln Navigator are all fantastic vehicles and a new Cadillac Escalade is reportedly on the way.

The GLS also competes with the latest Range Rover and Mercedes' own G-Wagon, although those vehicles don't have third-row seats like the GLS, but nowadays anyway. First I'm going to see how the new gls compares. I will take you on a tour of the gls and show you all the cool quirks and features of the latest mercedes-benz suv and then i will see you. I'll take it out on the road and drive it and then give it an excellent rating and for more of my thoughts on the new gls click the link below to visit autotrader.com oversteer where I've also put together a list of my suvs deluxe old school favorites currently for sale on autotrader.

I'm going to start with the quirks and features of the gls with an awesome new feature called augmented reality navigation, this is on the center screen and if you have it, it will take you to a destination, it will show you on the map how to get there, like You can see, but check this out, you approach an intersection where you have to turn and it actually uses the car camera to show you in real time where your next turn is. Those arrows in that street name are where you're turning and it's surprising how well that works.

Move on to the next turn and again the navigation system not only shows you on a map where to turn, it actually shows you in real life. arrows and a road sign, this makes navigation much more interesting of course, but it also makes it much harder to miss a turn anyway. I wanted to cover that first, move on to the rest of the quirks and features, and I'm going to start in the back seat since, after all, this is a

family

SUV, so in the back of this one you have two separate captain's chairs in the rear seats.

One interesting thing about these second row captain's chairs is the fact that they are fully power seats, don't you see it. very often, even in luxury SUVs, but these have the seat controls on the door and you can move them forward and backward automatically, you don't have to pull any levers or pull any tabs or put the seat in, you even have all the power to do it. the rear headrests which you never really see on any vehicle, not even full size luxury suvs like the rolls-royce or bentley, but the new gls has power rear headrests and speaking of things that are powered here, obviously you have electric windows, but it also has an electric rear sunshade.

If you pull up the power window button when the window is up, the sunshade will automatically roll up and unfold and then you can protect yourself from the sun. This may seem like a gimmick, but it's actually a very nice feature for new parents of babies who are very sensitive to light because, instead of having to put a sunshade on the window, you simply press the button and it rolls up. very easily. Next is another nice touch. the fact that you have two individual rear climate zones so both passengers can set their own temperature and don't have to fight over what temperature they want or just accept whatever temperature the front passengers have chosen now, something I love when you adjust the temperature here in the back the little ambient lighting under the seats changes according to what you've done, if you make the temperature warmer the ambient lighting turns red temporarily for warmth, if you make the temperature back here is colder then the ambient lighting color temporarily turns blue for the cold and I love what it does, it's a cheap little trick but they got me.

I think it's a really cool party trick on the back of the glasses and another nice feature on the back of the glasses if you open this compartment between the two seats you can see quite a few charging ports here, it has two USB chargers that, of course, it's nice to have and you have a household style power outlet back here, which is very, very convenient, you can, for example, plug your blender into the back of your glasses so you can blend while you drive. Another thing worth mentioning on the back of your glasses, if you look at the vents, these little dials to open and close them, can't you see them? like oreos i mean seriously you have the black one on the top and bottom and the white one in the middle.

They look like some kind of thin Oreos that you might have if you're on a diet, but you still want Oreos, that's all I see when I look. On those things and then I want to talk about the access to the third row seats in the glass and from here the access to the third row is really disappointing. You only have one option to get into the third row. You pull this red fabric bow and it falls. lower the seat but there is no way to make it easier to get in, you actually have to stand here and press the little seat control on the door and wait for the seat to slide forward and it takes several seconds each time you want to get in and comes out of the third row and we all know that kids don't have the patience to do that, but in terms of access to the third row seat there is good news and it comes from this side of the new glass, the passenger side and enters the way from a button near the top of the seat near the headrest you can see that the passenger side rear seat has it the driver side rear seat does not have that button that button makes all the difference because if you press that button the seat does all to yourself, it folds forward a little, moves forward all the way, and gives you tremendously easy access to the third row, which is probably the best third row access button and process I've seen on any three-wheeled SUV. rows.

There are two real benefits here. One is that it doesn't fold the seat completely down, allowing you to leave a car seat in the second row seat and still access the third row - not all SUVs do this. The other benefit is that although the seat is not folded. front so that the car seat can stay in place, you still have a very good and big path to get to the third row, so big that even I can get back there without much difficulty, so this works very, very well, it is a fantastic second. 3rd row hotspot my only complaint is I wish they had it on both sides but anyway since I'm here in the 3rd row of the new gls let's talk about the 3rd row first I want to talk about moving this seat to the position of their children. you've gotten into the third row and now you want to put this seat back where it was, you don't have to hold down the door buttons you just press that little button near the headrest again and the seat automatically falls back down put it exactly where it was so You don't have to do anything more than press a button now that the seat is in place.

I don't have much room here in the third row, but it's more than I expected and then some. Compared to many other SUVs, the packaging here is fantastic, and as an adult, sitting in this third row wouldn't be the most comfortable, but it's tolerable. I have more head and knee room than usual and two other interesting features worth mentioning. over the third row, one is the USBC ports, I showed you there were two of them in the second row, well there are four in the third row, two on the passenger side and then you have another two on the driver's side, like this I can charge a lot of devices here in the third row glass, those are the most charged ports I've seen in the third row of any vehicle I've reviewed.

The other interesting thing about the third row is what happens when you want it to. To get out, you simply press the button again and the seat begins to do its job. This takes a little longer than expected, but it's nice to be able to touch one button and it does everything and then you have enough space. to exit and so you do and then I want to move on to another area of ​​the gls where we will be very interested in families that are considering purchasing one of these and that would be the cargo area that I go to.

To start, probably my favorite feature of the cargo area and that is the cargo cover. I like this because, as you can see, the space that the cargo area needs to cover is quite small, and yet, in case you ever want to cover your bumper while it's raining, you can do so. Do that with the extra large cargo cover, actually the real reason it opens so much is that you can detach the cargo cover and then you can fold down the third row of seats and put the cargo cover behind the second row and then it covers your entire cargo and that way you have the option of using it just for the cargo area behind the third row or for the entire cargo area back here and talking about this cargo area behind the third row doesn't seem particularly interesting or especially great.

It's average for a three-row full-size luxury SUV, no crazy surprises here, but of course you can enlarge the cargo area considerably by folding the seats, and folding the seats into the back of the windows is actually very easy. of doing. On the right side of the cargo area you have little buttons that you can press to fold down the third row seats, which is pretty common on these full size luxury SUVs so you can fold the seats with a button instead of having to search fumbling with the latches. and by doing it yourself you can also use these buttons to fold the seats back and of course you can do it individually just the left seat, just the right seat or both seats together if you want but there is nothing particularly unusual about the Full size luxury SUV.

A cool party trick for the GLS is the fact that you can also fold down the second row of seats using a button back here, that button is on the left side, on the driver's side, in the cargo area, press that and the second row will go down. Captain's chairs now again, many SUVs will allow you to do that, but usually you press a button, they drop down and that's it, but on the glass you can also use those buttons to raise the second row seats and that's quite a feature. interesting which means you can control all the seats back here and that means you can make the cargo area as big or as small as you want literally with the push of a button and the benefit is obvious if you're trying to load a big box in here back doesn't quite fit, you can drop as many seats as you need automatically without having to go around and pull the latches and then when you take the box out you can put the seats back now talking. to load a big box back here, let's imagine it's heavy, as you can see, this loading floor is quite far from the ground to lift something heavy, that's where the last button in the loading area comes in handy, it's the one that will lower the glasses that press. that and the air suspension on the glass automatically lowers it a few centimeters which will make it much easier to carry something heavy, you just don't have to lift it as much and that's a cool little party trick too.

By the way, another thing worth mentioning about the cargo area back here is the little latch that you pull to raise the cargo floor and gives you access to the spare tire, tools and all that, pretty standard, but it's there. off. In the center you can see the tailgate latch in the center, in the center of the third row, in the center, but then this thing to the side, just a few centimeters, why did they do that? That's the kind of thing that will keep me up at night. just a few more inches and it would have been perfect back here, why do you haveWhy mess with me like that?

Mercedes Benz. Now, next I want to talk about the exterior styling. The new GLS maintains approximately the same proportions as the previous model, but the exterior. The style is quite different and you will notice it the moment you see one. In fact, I think this is the biggest design change for this vehicle since its launch in 2007, as the GL has a very different, more rounded look. It is more modern and fits more with the design language of the new Mercedes-Benz GLE, which was also recently redesigned and next we move under the hood of the new Glas and one of the things that will surprise you the most is the fact that there is an engine six-cylinder engine that powers this big, heavy-duty full-size luxury SUV that's actually been running for a few years.

The gl450 as it was called before used to have a standard v8 but in 2015 they moved up to a v6 with about the same power numbers for

2020

the new gls actually uses a different six cylinder engine as I mentioned 360 horsepower of force and 370 pound-feet of torque. Now those are about the same numbers as the outgoing v6, but this engine is different, it's an inline six. six instead of a v and it has some kind of mild hybrid component that drives the car that you probably won't useNotice there is a lot of difference, maybe a little more throttle response, but the real key here is the fuel economy by adding that part mild hybrid and opt for a more modern engine design.

Mercedes-Benz increased fuel economy from 18 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving in the old GLS to 21 miles per gallon in city and highway driving in the new model despite maintaining the same horsepower ratings and ​​torque and that's a pretty good increase and then we move on to the front of the new gls where the interior is located. It is dramatically different and dramatically improved compared to the outgoing model, the biggest difference here is undoubtedly Mercedes' new MBUX infotainment system, but I have already reviewed it in depth on two other new Mercedes models, the new cla and the new class that I will link to. those in the description below and instead I'll just give you a quick overview of some of the features of mbux in a couple of minutes, but first I want to talk about some of the other interesting quirks and features of the interior and I want to start with this dial in the center there is a fairly large dial or switch and you can see the image above has a car with arrows because that is the dial that you move to raise or lower the glass, you push it up and the glass rises to On difficult roads You push it down and it lowers to make it easier for people to get in if they have trouble getting in when the GLS is in its fully raised position, it looks ridiculous like a monster truck GLS but it's cool to see the full range. of movement and how much ground clearance you can actually get when you lift this thing up and then another cool thing in the front seats is the fact that in the center of the dash you have four air vents, some cars have two. the cars have three, my four gt has one, this thing has four, which means the passenger gets two of those and the driver gets two of those now, plus the vents they have on the sides of the dash, which which means both front seat passengers have three separate vents for optimal climate control and then another interesting element in the new glass is on the door panel.

You can see there you have controls for the seat and memory settings, and you also have the buttons for the heated and cooled seat. and then there's another button, it's a seat marked r, so what exactly is that? If you press it, it allows you to control the right seat or the passenger seat, so you press that little r and then you use the driver's side seat controls and it moves the passenger seat, which is a great party trick, really You can annoy your passenger without telling them, just press the button and start moving their seat, of course there is also a practical benefit if you have someone sitting in the back and they need more space. and there is no one sitting in the front passenger seat, you can easily control it from the driver's seat without having to reach out and then we move to the sun visor on the glass or should I say the sun visors, you lower the sun visor and then move it to the side because the sun Enter through the side window and guess what there is another sunshade there for the front.

This is what happens when you pay ninety thousand dollars for an SUV, two pretty nice sunshades, and then another item. It's worth noting that you have this giant screen casing that takes up a lot of the dash on the driver's side and in the middle and you can see to the left of that screen that you have a climate vent, now to the right of that screen you don't have climate vent because you have those four in the middle, but they've kept the climate vent look, I guess for symmetry, now the interesting thing here is that you have this group of horizontal lines and two of the lines are larger than all the others. that's because on the left those two lines represent the climate vent but on the right they're just lines and if you look at that you'll see that two of the lines are a little thicker than the others, this is the same level of annoyance from that weather vent latch. off-center cargo on the cargo floor, I feel like you just look at those two lines and constantly think those two lines are thicker and finally we move on to the infotainment system in this car which, as I mentioned, is Mercedes' new mbux system and As I also mentioned, I've covered it in more detail in the new cla and the class a, which I'll link below, but there are a few highlights I want to mention, for one thing, I love that mbux is controllable in three ways: you can use it as a touch screen or you can use this pad in the center or you can control it with the buttons on the steering wheel.

It's good to be able to choose what is most comfortable for you. I also love how quickly mbux responds. If you use it as a touchscreen, it's not as fast as a smartphone, but it's very close. I also love how configurable the gauge cluster situation is in mbux. You can reset gauge groups to display pretty much whatever you want. Vehicle information, navigation, driver aids, speedometer. all within your line of sight, which is very nice to have and you can make the navigation map full screen if you wish. In previous videos I thought you couldn't, but you can, and then you have a full screen map right below your field of view.

When you drive, which is a great idea, you can now also use the gauge cluster screen to change the gauge cluster theme. You have the typical options like standard or sport, but then there is a progressive call, which you click on. and apparently this is what Mercedes-Benz thinks the progressive gauge cluster dials look like and I admit it looks a little futuristic and dare I say progressive, one more mbux element worth noting when you first set it up, you can choose an avatar and a small image. that represents you, I guess this is used later in this system somewhere and I think it's fun, another intersection of cars and cell phones next, I love all the different themes it gives you, enter the infotainment system , you can choose from many different themes that instantly configure all kinds of settings throughout the interior to match that theme.

I mentioned the themes when I was reviewing the cla, but I mention it here because there is a new theme in the gls called adventure and you can see there is a picture of a g wagon as an off-roader, you click on adventure and all kinds of things change here, specifically , off-road modes appear in the gauge cluster so you know your function, lean, and exactly what wheels you're using. and on the infotainment system your cameras appear so you can see which rocks you're about to cross. Those themes are another interesting and cool idea from mbux as there are so many configurable things in this car that you just set a theme and it configures everything at once and those are the quirks and features of the new mercedes-benz gls now it's time to take it out on the road and see how well it drives driving the new gls my first impression of the new gls is its very high quality classic mercedes-benz good evolution on the old car that being said, there aren't as many party tricks and special things here as the which are found in the new browser and the new x7 um the x7 feels a little different it feels a little more I guess the word would be special more exciting that being said the uh of 10,000 more than this one, which has like a tag of 81,82,000 compared to the browser, same deal though.

The navigator has all these cool party tricks, like push-button streaming, 20 million seats with all these comfort bubbles, and so on. This is not on that level. It just feels like a very nice, high-quality, well-thought-out Mercedes Benz, but it's not. It doesn't seem to go as far as those models do to help draw you in, but it's important to understand that all of that isn't exactly necessary if what you want is a very high-quality vehicle with everything you need and a lot of really nice things you want. , this gets you there just as well as the x7 and nav, you don't need three rows of ambient lighting, you don't need 26 way seating and this offers mbux that Lincoln and BMW don't have and mbux is definitely a step up from the latest BMW infotainment.

It's probably two steps above Lincoln's latest infotainment system. It's so good, so easy to use, so intuitive now in terms of the driving experience. I really like the way it drives. It's obviously a big vehicle that doesn't feel incredibly big. I really like this six cylinder. I have driven it in other cars, the new Mercedes Cls, and it is great. In fact, I do this even though the power and torque figures are the same as the old v6. A little bit of a difference because of that hybrid system, I think it eliminates some of the lag that's associated with turbocharged engines, so you get a little bit more responsiveness and better fuel economy with this engine, obviously another big benefit. the old um is the interior and the technology everything is better here although the exterior looks are better but mbux it's hard to overstate how important mbux is otherwise you have all that if you know the gls You've driven previous pretty standard models in comparison with the GLS.

You have a nice and spacious interior. A very comfortable trip. You don't hear much tire noise from the wind. Nothing of that. There is good visibility in all directions. You have a good driving position sitting high up. and of course, very comfortable, very flexible here, as I mentioned, the window sticker is less than eighty thousand dollars. That's how most people will get this car with about six grand in options over the base price and even though the base price has gone up a lot. Well for 2020 you now have mbux, you have a better vehicle overall so I think it helps justify that price increase if you don't want to spend the money.

The new gle is also new for 2020 and is basically this vehicle, but just the right size. It went down a little bit, it's also a very, very good vehicle and that's the new Mercedes-Benz GLS. This is a great full size luxury suv but it competes in a world of great full size luxury suvs and I would be hard pressed to choose between this and the bmw x7 and the new lincoln navigator and the new range rover and the new mercedes g -wagon because they are all so good when you spend 90 or a hundred thousand dollars on a new suv I guess that's it Anyway, it's a good problem, now it's time to give the 2020 gls a doug score starting with the categories of weekend and styling the gls is fine nothing too special it gets a 6 out of 10.

Acceleration from 0 to 60 is 5.9 seconds and it gets a 4 out of 10. Handling is average for the class and it gets a 4 out of 10. Fun factor is low. This is decidedly unfun even for a luxury SUV, as it doesn't have many of the cool wow-factor features of its rivals. and it gets a 3 out of 10. Finally, the cool factor in the gls is by far the most common large luxury suv; These are too common to be great and get a 4 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 21 out of 50. Next up are the daily categories and features. It has a huge amount of stuff, including that awesome augmented reality navigation, and gets a 9 out of 10.

Comfort is good, average for the class, and gets an 8 out of 10. Quality is high, but the materials aren't up to par. one of the best in its class and gets a 7 out of 10. practicality is excellent only hurt by fuel consumption and access to the third row on the driver's side and gets a 9 out of 10. finally value and has everything right, It's expensive but that's what luxury SUVs are like, it gets a 6out of 10 for a total daily score of 39 out of 50. Added up, Doug's score is 60 out of 100 and this is where it falls against other luxuries. suv the gls loses to the bmw being a very solid option with great technology that